Trivia: African American leading lady Lynn Whitfield made her film bow in 1983's Dr. Detroit. Three years later, the Louisiana born and bred Whitfield played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first black female FBI agent. After gaining recognition for her work in a number of TV dramas, including The Women of Brewster Place (1990), Whitfield won an Emmy award and international acclaim for her starring performance in the HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story in 1991. Whitfield subsequently split her efforts between TV and film, doing particularly strong work in Kasi Lemmons' much-feted Eve's Bayou (1997) as a family matriarch struggling with her husband's infidelity. In 1999, she earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for her work in Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding, a 1950s drama in which she was cast as the wealthy mother of a young woman (Halle Berry) intent on marrying a poor white musician.

Trivia: Actress-cum-singer/dancer Sabrina Bryan achieved fame by way of a Disney Channel project, when she joined the cast of that network's popular telemovie The Cheetah Girls, playing a member of an all-female pop band. The success of that picture, in fact, launched the Cheetah Girls (Bryan included) as a mainstream recording act in real life and prompted several filmed sequels. Bryan's recognition increased substantially when she appeared as a "celebrity dancer" on the fifth season of the ABC competitive reality series Dancing With the Stars, opposite partner Mark Ballas.

Trivia: With looks that suggested magazine-cover finesse and massive heartthrob potential, blue-eyed and square-jawed Canadian actor Kyle Schmid did indeed begin his career as a much-sought-after print model. He then made the short leap into filmed work, first with commercial advertisements, then with fictional narratives. Born August 24, 1984, in Mississauga, Ontario, Schmid first reached audiences during his teenage years, with appearances in such productions as the direct-to-video family drama Alley Cats Strike! (2000) and What Girls Learn (2001). After a small role as Scott in the Vin Diesel family comedy The Pacifier, and a bit part in the female buddy film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants that same year, Schmid received fourth billing (his highest up through that time) as Max, in the quirky, gender-bending teen sex comedy Zerophilia. Schmid achieved much higher billing and broader exposure, however, when he scored one of the central roles in the sci-fi horror series Blood Ties, which premiered in 2007. In that program, Schmid played Henry Fitzroy, a 450-year-old vampire who strikes up a romance with a sexy female private eye.

Trivia: Raven-Symone earned a fond place in the hearts of Cosby Show fans around the world when she joined the cast of that seminal '80s sitcom as pint-sized Olivia Kendall, the daughter of Lt. Martin Kendall (Joseph C. Phillips) and Denise Huxtable Kendall (Lisa Bonet) during the hit program's sixth season. The series wrapped within a few years of Symone's enlistment, but the young actress continued her ascent by establishing herself as a force to be reckoned with in the multiple venues of television, pop music, and feature film.Born in Atlanta, GA, in December 1985, Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman began modeling diapers at the age of two and landed the Cosby assignment by the age of three. By 1993 (one year after Cosby took its final bow), Symone had joined the cast of yet another sitcom, ABC's Hangin' With Mr. Cooper (1992-1997), then a year into production; she would remain with Cooper until it folded in 1997, but in the mean time branched off into another venue altogether as an R&B recording artist. MCA quickly signed her and issued her rap-infused album Here's to New Dreams in 1993; unfortunately, it failed to connect with a sizeable audience, and it would be six years before Symone emerged with a sophomore recording, the R&B-flavored Undeniable (1999). That album unabashedly showcased the young performer's desire to become a teen pop sensation, and revealed her vocal skills much more transparently than its predecessor, as did its follow-up efforts. Meanwhile, Symone landed bit parts and supporting roles in movies, including Dr. Dolittle (1998) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001); she also voiced the character of Monique on the animated television series Kim Possible (2002) and headlined her own Disney Channel sitcom, That's So Raven. The smash program cast Symone as a 15-year-old girl whose gaffes get her family into a seemingly endless series of outrageous difficulties. Symone then starred in the hit telemovies The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2, lent a supporting role to the theatrical feature The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), and signed to star in the big-screen outing College Road Trip, opposite funnyman Martin Lawrence. In that comedy, Symone plays a young woman on a college-scouting trip with her policeman father.

Trivia: Manhattan-born singer and actress Adrienne Bailon had a drastically different future planned out before her career in show business took off. She attended a high school geared toward careers in health and human services, but when her girl group 3LW took off around 2001, the 18-year-old pursued her new profession with full force. The group eventually disbanded, but Bailon was already on to a new project, joining the band/movie/TV franchise the Cheetah Girls with Disney progeny Raven Symone. The group spawned several TV movies and released several albums together before disbanding in 2009. Bailon started to work on her solo career and made the rounds on reality shows for several years before landing a co-hosting gig on The Real in 2013.

Trivia: Moved to Canada from Turkey with his family when he was 3. Studied sketch comedy and improv at Second City. Landed his first role at age 22 in the movie How to Deal. Hosted the Canadian Testicular Cancer Association's MANsake Ball in 2011.